


Road Trip

by HashtagLEH



Series: Something Like a Family [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Billy Hargrove & Eleven | Jane Hopper Friendship, Billy Hargrove Is Bad at Feelings, Billy Hargrove Redemption, Billy Hargrove Tries to Be a Better Person, Eleven | Jane Hopper Needs A Hug, Gay Billy Hargrove, Gen, Protective Billy Hargrove, Protective Eleven | Jane Hopper, Road Trips, Soft Billy Hargrove, Stranger Things 2, and summaries, author is terrible with titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27552802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/HashtagLEH
Summary: Billy did not expect a day trip to find El's mom to turn into an overnight trip to Chicago, but here he is.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Billy Hargrove, Eleven | Jane Hopper & Kali Prasad
Series: Something Like a Family [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009263
Comments: 4
Kudos: 134





	Road Trip

**Author's Note:**

> I am on a fucking _roll_ and I am taking great advantage of my motivation to write this and do nothing else with my life atm. I hope you're grateful lol. If not, it's fun to write for myself anyway, haha.

Billy had honestly expected more argument from Max, when he had picked her up from the arcade the night before, a little after eight-thirty. She had still been scowly when she got in the car, and Billy had ignored the lurch somewhere in the vicinity of his chest when her sleeve had ridden up and he saw the reddened, bruising marks in the shape of his hand on her wrist as she moved her backpack around to rest on her lap. But she didn’t say anything about their argument a couple hours previous, and they had driven with silence between them for most of the drive back to the house, only his rock music playing quietly through the speakers.

“I’ll be gone by the time you wake up tomorrow morning,” Billy had told her finally, not looking at her. “Not sure how long I’ll be gone, so keep yourself out of trouble until I get back.”

He had expected her to argue, or even just ask where he was going, but she just nodded and said, “Not like I can do much in this town, anyway.” And it was true – they lived farther away from the center of town than what was comfortable to walk or skate to, but still he wouldn’t put anything past her.

He was maybe feeling a little regretful at the bruises he’d given her though, especially after how admittedly carefully he was treating El, and so he didn’t push or insist, taking her words at face value. Besides, insisting wouldn’t do any good – if she was really determined to go out of line, there was nothing he could realistically do to stop her. Pushing the issue would just make them both angry once again, so he had nodded and continued the rest of the drive home.

When they had got inside though and before going to bed, Billy had the thought of what if Neil called the house or something to check on him and discovered him missing. His lips tightened as he remembered Max, wondered whether she would just take the initiative and cover for him, and decided that he really couldn’t risk it.

With a sigh to himself, he had gone to her bedroom for the second time that night, again knocking and letting himself in without waiting for an answer.

“Here,” he had told her, thrusting a few bills from his wallet her way. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone tomorrow, so order a pizza or something so you don’t starve.”

Max had given him a dry look even as she accepted the money. “I _do_ know how to cook, you know.”

“Fooled me,” Billy had retorted. “I don’t care how you use it – this way Neil can’t say I wasn’t watching out for you.”

Max had scowled. “I don’t need a _babysitter_ ,” she’d griped.

Billy had ignored that because they both knew that Neil didn’t care for opinions contrary to his own, and said, “Just listen for the phone, in case Neil calls to check up. Make excuses. I don’t care, just _don’t_ tell him that I’m gone.”

“Where are you even going?” Max had finally asked at that, as it was becoming more and more obvious that he would be gone for an uncertain length of time the next day.

“Place called Larrabee,” Billy had said dismissively. “You wouldn’t know it.”

***

Now, he sat in El’s room, on a chair so squishy it sucked him in and made him a little claustrophobic. He was fiddling with an unlit cigarette, wanting to smoke it but not wanting to leave El alone up here while he stepped outside.

He had felt like an intruder, an outsider looking in, for most of the afternoon. El talked mostly with Becky, who was apparently her aunt, and unsurprisingly her mother Terry was completely addled, kept repeating the same words over and over again with a faraway look on her face. Billy had stayed largely out of the way while El figured things out; he didn’t think Becky cared for him much just based on his appearance, and he didn’t want his own personality affecting how the woman might treat her niece. She had been very concerned when she’d first opened her door to see him there, thought they were thieves or something most likely, and it had only been El’s powers forcing the door open that allowed her to believe that Billy really was just her ride here.

It had been interesting, to see El using her powers, and he’d wanted to ask her questions about how it worked but he figured they had a couple hours of a drive back to Hawkins when he could ask her about it. He’d kept his mouth shut, smirking a little when El told Becky to be quiet when she was apparently going to visit her mom in “the dark place”.

The revelations since then had been rocking, that Terry’s words hadn’t been random but a very purposeful way of remembering another little girl, so that when El – Jane – found her that she would be able to tell her to find this other girl.

El hadn’t been successful when she’d looked though, and Becky had suggested a nap when El looked incredibly tired with the effort it apparently took to use her powers. El had obediently gone to the bed Becky had made up for her, and Billy had followed to slouch into the chair beside the bed, not knowing what else to do.

But El hadn’t slept – dozed a little, and Billy dozed when she did, but any time he heard her breathing shift or pick up, he knew she was awake subconsciously and woke up himself, so he knew her nap hadn’t been all that restful.

The whole time, she clutched the photocopy of the newspaper clipping that had the picture of the girl – the one that El had just started calling “sister” because no name was given in the article.

“There’s no harm in trying again,” Billy finally said after watching her stare at the picture in her hands for a long time, having given up on sleep. It was dark outside now, just past seven, and Billy hadn’t expected to be gone from Hawkins this long but El had _actually_ found her mom and her aunt, and he didn’t want to pull her away before she was ready. Especially when Hopper would be waiting back at the cabin, no doubt angry that she had left without a note and without knowing where she had gone. He figured it didn’t matter – only Max would be waiting at home and she wouldn’t care if he didn’t show up.

El looked up at him with a helpless look that tugged at him. “I couldn’t find her. I _always_ find people.”

“Well, maybe it’s attached to _her_ powers,” Billy suggested with a shrug. “Assuming she has them, too. Maybe you just need to try harder, I dunno how this shit works.”

El looked thoughtful, and looked back at the picture. Billy knew he’d convinced her when she closed her eyes, and remembering her process with the TV he stayed silent, thumb playing with the end of his cigarette as he watched her eyes flutter behind the lids.

Suddenly she gasped, inhaling deeply like she’d stopped breathing for a moment, and her eyes flew open. Raising an eyebrow expectantly, he watched as she sat up and spun around to face him completely.

“I found her!” she said, looking equal parts excited and nervous. “I know where she is!”

Billy suddenly realized that El was going to want to go there _tonight_ , wherever it was – although it was probably at least fairly close, if she’d also grown up in Hawkins Lab. It would be difficult to travel some great distance because of that, especially as a runaway hiding from the literal government. And he hadn’t told Max that she’d need to cover for him more than most of the day, so he didn’t know if he could really trust her to take that initiative if Neil did indeed call. He also hadn’t brought clothes or even a toothbrush with him because he hadn’t thought this would be an overnight trip.

He would need to be careful with how he went about phrasing it to El that they would have to wait until the next day for such a trip, after heading back to sleep in Hawkins, because he didn’t want her to get stubborn about it and find a way to go on her own. He shuddered at the thought of what might happen to her if she tried _hitchhiking_. There were too many creeps on the road and El was _painfully_ naïve.

“Tell Becky,” El was saying excitedly, getting up from the bed, her grip tight on the picture of her “sister”. “We need to tell Becky.”

Becky had been making dinner, last Billy had heard, and honestly he would like to stay for some food before heading out again. The sandwiches for lunch had been hours ago and it wasn’t like he was made of money that they could find some diner along the way – especially out here in the middle of nowhere.

“Okay, kid, slow down,” Billy ordered, rising to his feet after a brief struggle with the chair that had sucked him in and was trying to swallow him. “We’ll tell Becky, but we have time, alright? Let’s get more details, maybe something to eat before we head out.”

El nodded, but reminding him of Max again with the way she utterly ignored his words, she went dashing out of the room and down the stairs, calling for her aunt as she went. Billy heaved a sigh and followed after her. She had already disappeared from view by the time he got out of the room, but when he got to the stairs, he saw her halted at the bottom, no longer yelling and clearly listening.

Billy crept up behind her, leery due to her suddenly tense posture that a little girl like her really shouldn’t know to make, and heard Becky’s voice filtering through from where she was apparently talking on the phone on the front porch.

“…came here looking for her,” Becky was saying when he tuned in. He stood behind El, tense and listening for what had put the twelve-year-old on alert. “I thought maybe he could help me. Yeah, Jim Hopper, he came here with some woman named Joyce Byers?”

Billy watched as the woman paced across the porch, cigarette and what looked like a business card in one hand. “Well, that’s a little hard to explain. Uh…”

El turned around, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Have to go,” she whispered, grabbing his hand and shoving him toward the back door. “Hopper will find out.”

And Billy suddenly realized that if El ever wanted to find her sister, it would have to be tonight. If Hopper found out that El had gone two hours out of Hawkins – especially with an older boy she’d met barely a week ago – Billy was certain that some sort of drastic measures would be put in place that El wouldn’t be _able_ to sneak out again. And with Becky letting someone know that El was here, someone who would tell Hopper…well, then they needed to get the hell out of dodge before it would be too late to do so.

He turned around, silently and quickly going into the living room, grabbing his jacket and looking away while El grabbed her mom’s hand, squeezing it once in farewell. He went out the back door, holding it open for El to run out so that he could hold the handle while he closed it, making the click as quiet as possible. They had to run around the side of the house to get to the front, sticking to the trees and shadows as they made their way to Billy’s car parked at the end of the driveway. He was as gratified as he was awed by her stupidity when Becky ran back into the house, calling for Jane.

He turned the key in the ignition and threw the car into drive while El closed the door after her. Her window was still open a little from the drive out, and Billy heard Becky calling after them as he revved away, down the street.

“Alright kid, where are we going?” Billy asked El when the slight rush of adrenaline had faded from sneaking around. He grabbed the cigarette loose in his pocket from where he’d shoved it on his way out the door. It was a little bent, but he didn’t care as he lit it up – he’d been itching for a smoke for a couple of hours now.

El pursed her lips in thought, closing her eyes for a moment. “That way,” she finally said, pointing in a general northwestly direction.

Billy turned his head to raise a sardonic eyebrow at her, blowing out a puff of smoke as he did. “Gonna need a little more than that, kid.”

El took a breath that on anyone else would have sounded impatient. Blinked. Then said like she was sounding out an unfamiliar word, “Chi-ca-go.”

Billy almost turned the car right around to take the road that would head back to Hawkins, because _Chicago_? That was like, _four hours_ away, easy. He had expected a couple hours, maybe three at the max. He had expected somewhere closer, like Indianapolis, which was a little over an hour away from Hawkins and almost perfectly in the middle of Hawkins and the Ives’ house, if you took that route. He wasn’t prepared for what would definitely be an overnight trip, and El was well-mannered and pretty easy to be around, but he was certain that would change when she got tired enough that grumpiness was her only emotion. She was still twelve, after all.

But then a few things all clicked into place at once in his mind. The way El had called this girl “sister”. The longing when she said it, to find people like her – someone else who had experienced what she had. The fact that really, Neil wouldn’t know he’d been gone if Max kept her mouth shut about it. The fact that Max probably wouldn’t care either way if he didn’t come back. The reminder that he’d thought of earlier, that El wasn’t going to stop just because Billy wanted to. She would find a way to get to Chicago, with or without him.

With that in mind, there was really only one answer he could give her.

“Alright,” he said, inhaling from his cigarette again and blowing out as he said, “Let’s go to Chicago.”

***

They had to stop for gas about twenty minutes up the road. Billy figured it was the last station he would see for a while, and although he was a little under half full, he took advantage because he didn’t want to be stranded in buttfuck nowhere, especially if someone else happened along to see a guy like _him_ with a girl looking like _El_ did and decided to call the cops to be safe.

He needed to call Max, just in case anything had happened that day, so while El used the bathroom and picked out some snacks for the drive – which would really be their dinner – he took his change from paying for the gas and used the payphone to call home.

“Hargrove residence,” Max chirped after a couple of rings, and Billy sighed with relief that she was still at home and apparently hadn’t gotten into trouble that day.

Leaning against the side of the booth outside the doors of the station, he said, “Hey, shitbird, it’s me.”

Max’s sigh was so loud it came through the speaker sounding like static. “Neil hasn’t called, and I haven’t done anything – you don’t need to ride my ass when I’ll see you soon anyway.”

There was something in her voice that suggested she was telling a half-truth. Billy suspected that she had indeed left the house at some point, but he didn’t call her on the lie because he didn’t want to put her in a bad mood when he might need her help – especially because she was back at the house now.

So he just said, “Not why I’m calling. Look, something came up – I’m not going to be back till tomorrow. I’m not sure what time; it kind of depends on how things go.”

Max was quiet a moment, breathing quietly through the phone, and then she said in a hushed voice like someone might hear her despite the fact that she was apparently home alone, “Billy, are you in trouble? What’s going on – what’s this emergency?”

Billy scowled, but tried to keep himself from snapping at her because as much as it pained him to admit it, he _needed_ her just in case and didn’t want her spitefully telling on him to Neil.

“It’s not an emergency,” he said, unable to hide at least some of his annoyance. “I just didn’t expect this to take so long, and I don’t know how long I might be tomorrow. Look, I just don’t want to get into it with Dad if I’m not back to greet them when they come back tomorrow. If I’m not back by then, can you cover for me?”

“Of course I will, Billy – you didn’t need to call and ask me that; I’m not stupid,” Max retorted, matching his annoyance.

“Whatever, shitbird,” Billy scoffed, but then remembered his vow not to piss her off, and hurried on before she could hang up in irritation. “If you go into my room, there’s a cigarette box in my top drawer. Grab some money out of there if you need anything tomorrow, alright?”

“You’re telling me where your secret money stash is?” Max balked. “Are you _sure_ you’re not in trouble? You’re coming back _alive_ , right?”

Billy snorted. “It’s _one_ of my stashes,” he corrected her. “And don’t go looking for the others.” The phone beeped at him then – he was running short on time. “I’ve gotta go. Stay out of trouble, you understand?”

Max sighed. “Yeah, yeah – see ya tomorrow.”

When Billy found El a minute later, she was pondering the candy display in front of her. A box of Eggos was already under one arm, and in one fist she had three or four candy bars he couldn’t see the names of.

Billy snorted. “How nutritious,” he said dryly, and hypocritically grabbed a bag of potato chips and a couple of drinks for himself before getting a couple more candy bars that he shoved in the inner pocket of his jacket. El watched him, but didn’t say anything or look concerned; a moment later when she tried walking out with items in her arms and still without paying, he had to laugh to himself at the fact that she clearly didn’t know how money worked before pulling her toward the register.

He paid for the things to the bored-looking cashier, along with a couple more packs of smokes for the road, and within a few minutes, they were headed out in the direction of Chicago.

***

Billy learned a lot about El, in that almost-four-hour car ride. She seemed willing enough to answer his questions, so he didn’t hesitate to ask them, wondering how she’d gotten her powers and how she’d gotten out of the lab. She talked about “the dark place” a lot, and from what he could understand, it seemed to be some other sort of world that ran alongside theirs, but not constrained by the same boundaries of distance as Earth was. It was hard to wrap his mind around, but apparently she could find people anywhere in the world when she was in the dark place, but sometimes it could be hard for her to get there.

He felt like she was holding back on telling a lot of important bits though, because her story of finding her way to Hawkins and meeting some boys (whom she only referred to by their first names) seemed to have a lot of holes in it that didn’t make much sense. He wasn’t sure though whether she was intentionally holding back though or if she just didn’t have all the words to explain what had happened. He didn’t know her tells yet – didn’t know when she was lying or telling half-truths.

She did tell him how she’d run away from the government – or just “Papa”, because despite the fact that he was apparently dead, they all seemed to be subordinates to this guy in her mind and he was the big evil, and therefore they were all the same. They thought she was also dead, apparently, for reasons which she didn’t disclose, and she’d lived in the forest for several days before she had seen Hopper, and over a couple of weeks had watched him routinely return to some box with food for her before she felt like he was okay enough for her to follow him home. He was a little surprised by that, but when she told him that it had been snowy and cold outside, he understood the idea more. Wouldn’t want to freeze to death while sleeping, after all, and apparently she was powerful enough that she could stop anyone who tried to hurt her.

Honestly he was pretty glad for that revelation, because it assured him that if _he_ ever tried to hurt her that she was more powerful than her slight frame would suggest and would be able to stop him.

He supposed that he should have expected, after she answered all his questions, that she would ask him about himself, but still he was surprised when about an hour past the gas station she started returning his questions in kind.

“You have mama?” was the first thing she asked, and Billy felt like all the oxygen had been squeezed from his lungs.

“No,” he finally said when the silence had drawn out and neither of them had said anything for a solid minute. “Not anymore.”

El was thoughtful, and then sadly she asked, “Do you remember her?”

Billy huffed a little, his mind not sure whether he wanted to lash out and be angry at her questions or be sad at the memory of his mother and finally just settling on flat honesty. “Yeah, kid, I remember her. She left when I was eight.”

“Left?” El sounded confused, tilting her head.

“Abandoned me,” Billy tried to clarify, but she didn’t know that word either. “She packed up her car while I was at school and decided to forget about me, start a new life somewhere else. I haven’t seen her since then, don’t even know if she’s alive anymore.” The idea was painful, but he supposed that’s what life gave him.

“Sad,” El decided, and Billy huffed a sardonic laugh.

“Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up,” he agreed. “Left me behind to deal with Neil and his anger at everything.”

“Bad Papa,” El remembered.

“Yeah, Neil is a bad papa,” Billy curled his lip, grabbed his bottle of Coke from the cup holder just to have something to do with his hands besides grip the wheel. “Not as bad as yours, though, from what I hear.”

El hummed, and didn’t agree nor did she disagree. Instead she said, “You said – sister?”

“Yeah, step sister,” Billy said, taking a swig of his drink before setting it back down. “Max. She’s a little older than you.”

“What is – _step_ sister?” El asked carefully, clearly unfamiliar with the term.

“My dad married her mom,” Billy said disgustedly. “So we were shoved together. We’re not actually related, thank god.”

El tilted her head. “Your sister – bad too?”

Billy gave her a look, realizing where her mind was probably going with that particular phrasing. “She’s thirteen – I don’t want you to lump her in with your papa or with Neil. She’s not _evil_ – she’s just a shithead.”

“Shit-head,” El sounded out, and Billy almost groaned with the belated realization that he’d been teaching her swear words that she was clearly unfamiliar with, and was too innocent and naïve to know that they were not words you’d find in a dictionary and therefore Hopper might _actually_ get mad at her for the language.

Whatever, though, he decided. She was twelve. She would have learned it from somewhere, eventually.

“Why don’t you like her?” El asked him curiously.

Billy took a breath, tightened his grip on the steering wheel as memories flashed through his mind in full, painful color. He tapped another cigarette out of the box, told himself it would be his last one before Chicago and knew it would be a lie if they kept talking down this track.

“She betrayed me,” he said after a moment, and then realized that that was probably also a word that El wouldn’t know. Jesus, it was difficult having to dumb it down without all its necessary nuances.

“She hurt me, on purpose,” he said, holding the flame of his Zippo to the cigarette to light it. At El’s growing look of anger on his behalf – and wasn’t _that_ a strange feeling – he said, “She shared a secret with Neil – a _bad_ secret. It made Neil mad enough to almost kill me. We moved out here so that no one else would find out about the secret.”

El frowned thoughtfully at his explanation, quiet for a few minutes as he worked his way through the cigarette, cracking the window to let some of the worst of the smoke out so that El didn’t choke.

“I’m mad at her too,” she finally decided, and at that, Billy wasn’t sure whether he should feel defensive of Max or relieved that someone else was in his corner.

So he decided not to say anything about it, instead changing the subject with, “So what’s your deal with the Eggos?”

***

They reached Chicago around eleven-thirty, and after that, Billy had to accept having the twelve-year-old as a navigator. That might not have been so bad – even Max had been a decent navigator when they’d had to drive across the country together in the move to Hawkins and were separated from Neil and Susan at times – except that El didn’t use the names of streets or even an estimated length of space before he would need to turn. It was sudden “turn heres” and “behind that building”, and he needed to go fast enough not to piss off traffic behind him while also slow enough that jerking the wheel suddenly to go down a street before they passed it wouldn’t cause the car to roll or skid on the ice.

They were getting into the less frequented part of the city, and the streets and buildings grew steadily more dilapidated as they went. Billy supposed he wasn’t surprised; finding El’s pseudo-sister was homeless would be half expected, considering her options with staying out of the oversight of the government.

At one point, El said that they should park and walk the rest of the way, which Billy wasn’t particularly eager to do but he just heaved a sigh and followed her instructions. It wasn’t his show, after all, and what was walking another mile or two when he’d already driven a totaled six hours for her that day already?

They walked through a section of warehouses that were filled with a bunch of homeless people all congregated together; it reminded him of walking through the older parts of the city back home, where the people were harsh and their breath was harsher from living on the streets for so long. Sometimes Billy had hung around them when he hadn’t wanted to go home and be around Neil, so he wasn’t uncomfortable walking through it until he noticed the amount of people eyeing up El at his side. He sneered at them, giving them dark looks of warning if they looked like they might come too close, and El remained thankfully oblivious to it as she moved with purpose with some destination only she knew.

The people around them thinned, until at one point they were finally across from a warehouse with graffiti up the side and a couple of lights on within. He knew from the look on El’s face that this was the place she had been searching for.

“Well, come on then,” Billy said, a little impatient due to the cold. He was only wearing his leather jacket, not having gotten a winter coat yet, and he missed the California weather dearly. His boots were at least thicker – not snow boots, but heavy and decent enough. Still, he wanted to get inside where hopefully it would be a bit warmer.

He walked across the street, El following at first behind him before she caught up at his side. He reached for the door, and it opened with a small squeak that he didn’t think the people inside would hear unless they were right next to the door. But when they entered, letting the door fall closed behind them, he heard voices in the distance, just around the corner as they laughed and talked with each other.

“Hello?” El called, just as four people around a barrel came into view, and Billy wanted to slap his own face at the fact that she’d alerted them that they were there so soon. He supposed she’d never heard of doing a ret-con though, so he just sighed to himself as the four rose to their feet, on guard.

“Well, well,” a guy with a tall Mohawk and tattooed face said with a sort of menacing amusement as he walked around the barrel, coming closer to them. “What do we have here?”

“What is she wearing?” the black girl with a wide afro said with some amazement. “Are those _overalls_?”

“Is that a _forehead tattoo_?” Billy retorted without thought in Mohawk guy’s direction, but feeling abruptly offended on El’s behalf. They didn’t know _shit_ about her. “We all make our own personal style choices, assholes. Maybe check your own before someone else’s.”

“I’m looking for my sister,” El said clearly, ignoring the looks Billy was getting as well as the menace they were putting out.

“Aw, Shirley Temple lost her sister,” Mohawk guy cooed mockingly to the others. “So sad.”

“I saw her,” El said before Billy could rip into the guy. “Here.”

She reached into the pocket of her bag, and Billy knew already that that was a bad idea before the big black guy with the long braid said, “Uh-uh. Hand out of pocket. Slow.” His hand was at his waist, clearly toward a gun, and Billy wanted to be incredulous because this was _El_ and she wasn’t going to pull a weapon on them. (Besides the fact that it was too threatening for a little girl, she didn’t need a knife or a gun to cause harm – she had powers to do that.) But he knew that on the streets age didn’t really matter, and so it wasn’t an unwarranted assumption and leeriness on these people’s parts.

El obediently pulled the picture from her bag with more careful slowness, handing it off to Mohawk guy when he snatched it from her with a mutter. He stared down at the picture, and Billy could see how his expression changed – still hostile, but more wary now as he seemed to recognize the girl.

Afro girl came up at Mohawk guy’s side, taking the picture and inspecting it for only a moment before she said, “Is that _Kali_?”

“Kali?” El repeated, sounding more hopeful that they had recognized her pseudo-sister.

“How did you find us?” Mohawk guy demanded, whirling back on her. Billy leaned in closer, grabbing the sleeve of her shirt and preparing for…something. He didn’t like the way the guy was looking at her. “Who else knows you’re here?”

“No one, fucker, you’re not that important,” Billy cut in with a sneer.

“So, what then?” the guy demanded, eyes darting between the two of them. “Poof! You just show up like magic with that picture?”

Billy wanted to snort a little at that, because magic – or a type of magical power or some shit – is _exactly_ how El had found them.

“Stay calm – she’s just a kid,” Afro girl said appeasingly to the guy.

“A kid who could get us all killed,” Mohawk guy snapped back at her, and then looked at Billy. “And of course, don’t forget about the big brother. Or whatever the _fuck_ you two are.”

Billy was angry with the implication, but he didn’t have the time to snap back something scathing about it, because the guy’s hand reached into his pocket and Billy was immediately distracted with the impending danger.

“If I have to ask again, Shirley…”

And then the pocketknife was open, pointing in El’s face in obvious threat, and Billy didn’t think, he just acted. He yanked El back behind him, covering her as much as he could and clenched his hands into fists, ready for a fight.

“Fucking _try_ it,” he snarled angrily. “See what happens.”

“Come on, Axe, put down the knife!” Afro girl demanded, sounding more alarmed now.

Mohawk guy – Axe, apparently – completely ignored her, staring down Billy with threatening eyes. “ _How_ did you _find_ us?”

“I saw her,” El piped up behind him, not sounding as scared as Billy felt she should. But then he supposed it was fitting, considering she could use her powers to stop this any time she felt like it.

“That’s not an answer!” Axe said, louder and more angrily, stepping closer with clear intent, knife out farther, and Billy pulled his fist back, ready to let swing –

And then suddenly Axe was pulling the knife back, curling his hand and a look equal parts fear and disgust appearing on his face as he stared at something Billy couldn’t see.

It didn’t seem anyone else could see it either, because the others were just watching on blankly as Axe tossed the knife off to the side and danced around, beating at his arms and head and shaking his jacket as though there were bugs crawling over him. Billy watched in confusion, still guarded in front of El but not seconds away from a fight any longer.

“You’re a terrible dancer, Axel,” a new voice said, and Billy’s head shot up, not having heard anyone else, looking over to see an Indian-looking girl with a tall head of hair standing on the stairs and watching them. She was probably about Billy’s age, though the makeup and hairstyle she wore made her look a little older.

“I told you, _stay_ out of my head!” Axel yelled at her angrily, no longer jumping around anymore, and Billy had no idea what that meant but he ignored it for now to look at the new face in their midst, not knowing if she was going to be a threat either.

“So we’re threatening little girls and protective older brothers now, are we?” the girl said, and there it was again – that accusation that Billy was El’s brother. He supposed it was better than suggesting that they were an _item_ ; he shuddered at the thought. El was _twelve_.

“They know about you,” Axel insisted.

“She had this,” the skinny girl with frizzy hair spoke up for the first time, stepping forward to give the Indian girl the picture El had used to find her.

The girl took it, examining it for a moment before she looked up at El, who stepped around Billy to come closer.

“Where did you get this?” the girl demanded suspiciously.

El snatched the picture back, seeming a little miffed at all the suspicion and hostility. _Good for you, kid,_ Billy thought to himself, standing back to watch the exchange. He could guess that this was the mysterious Kali mentioned previously, and he could guess where this was going to go when she found out who El was. He didn’t want to get in the middle of all those feelings.

“Mama,” El answered simply, sliding the photo back into her bag. Billy stayed behind her, watching Kali and the others in turn in case anyone made any sudden movements. The big black guy and Afro girl were watching him with the same look of wariness, which he supposed he could understand, from their point of view. Didn’t make him any less tense.

“Your mother gave this to you?” Kali said skeptically.

“In her dream circle,” El agreed.

Axel scoffed, walking away and toward the knife still on the ground while he muttered something under his breath. Then, louder, “I think she’s a schizo or something.”

“Says she’s looking for her sister,” Afro girl said.

“Yeah,” Axel said, turning a little as he began to bend down. “Like I said – schizo.”

The pocketknife flew into El’s hand just before Axel could grab hold of it, and Billy unwillingly began to smirk. _You go, girl,_ he cheered for her mentally as she nonchalantly folded the knife closed. He glanced over at the others again, saw that they looked amazed, that their understanding of why Billy and El were there was growing.

“I saw you,” El said. “In the rainbow room.”

Kali walked closer, began to walk around her, but El turned, following the movement. “What is your name?”

“Jane,” El answered. Billy made a mental note to ask her if that’s what she preferred from everyone now, or if it was just what she wanted to be called here.

Kali stared for a second, and then reached over to El’s left arm, carefully pulling up the sleeve to reveal the tattooed number there. She accepted El’s grip in return, pulling their wrists close together. From Billy’s angle he could see _008_ tattooed into her wrist, in the same spot El’s tattoo was located in. He looked away, feeling like this was a private moment he was intruding on, and saw the others still watching the two girls in varying degrees of amazement.

“Sister,” El whispered, and Billy looked over to see that her face had softened quite a bit at the confirmation that Kali was who she was looking for. Billy couldn’t quite see Kali’s face from the angle he stood at, but he was pretty sure that she would be wearing the same expression.

“Sister,” Kali agreed, voice and tone equally soft.

Billy wasn’t sure who pulled who first, but in a moment, both girls were wrapped in a hug. Billy watched, feeling something like happiness and something like pain at the same time, at the two girls who clearly weren’t blood related at all but still agreed with their sisterhood. He was glad that he could help El find her, but he hadn’t expected – though he probably should have – to have to feel all these _feelings_ at the site of their reunion.

He walked to the bin with the fire still burning away inside – he had yet to warm up from the walk. He figured they would probably be there awhile though, so he had no problem leaving El and Kali to chat for a bit. He leaned a little against the table next to where Axel stood.

“So,” he said to Axel and the skinny girl with frizzy hair. They gave him slightly wary looks, which he summarily ignored as he gave them his usual cocky grin. “I’m Billy.”

**Author's Note:**

> The next installment will include the rest of their time in Chicago, so keep an eye out for that, and let me know what you thought of Billy and El here!


End file.
